“The Harvest of Death Is Complete”

Abstract

Following upon Abraham Lincoln’s electoral victory in 1864, chapter three portrays northern evangelicals anticipating military victory and emergent national oneness. The chapter looks particularly at northern evangelical intersection with Lincoln’s second inaugural address, their initial hopes following the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, and then their reaction to Lincoln’s assassination. Northern evangelicals were ecstatic when the war ended and the Union was preserved, and, despite Lincoln’s assassination and the anger that followed, they looked ahead to Reconstruction as a moment during which affective national Christian oneness would be more fully and strongly attained than ever before in American history. The northern evangelical vision for the Union was intact and optimistic. Northern white evangelicals had never been primarily energized by radical advocacy for racial justice; thus they did not desire or envision the long-term need for strong federal reconstructive efforts in the South.